Renegade plant dealer John Laroche was arrested in 1994. He was caught stealing an endangered orchid from the Fakahatchee Swamp in Florida with the idea of cloning it. New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean was intrigued by the story and followed Laroche through the swamps and into the world of Florida's orchid collectors—a subculture of aristocrats, fanatics, and smugglers whose obsession with plants is all-consuming. Along the way, Orlean learned the fraught history of orchid collecting, discovered an odd pattern of plant crimes in Florida, and spent time with Laroche's partners, a tribe of Seminole Indians still at war with the United States. There is something fascinating or funny or truly bizarre on every page of The Orchid Thief: the story of how the head of a Seminole chief came to be displayed in the front window of a local pharmacy, or how 700 iguanas were smuggled into Florida, or the case of the only known extraterrestrial plant crime. The book is also the basis of the 2002 film Adaptation, starring Meryl Streep as Orlean.

"In Ms. Orlean's skillful handling, her orchid story turns out to be distinctly 'something more.' Getting to know Mr. Laroche allows her to explore multiple subjects: orchids, Seminole history, the ecology of the Fakahatchee Strand, the fascination of Florida to con men.... All that she writes here fits together because it is grounded in her personal experience ... acres of opportunity where intriguing things can be found."—NYTimes